Monday, December 15, 2008

So what are you up to next week on December 17-19? How about helping to shatter a glass ceiling? This week, EQUAL REP was formed calling on people across the nation to urge President-elect Obama to appoint Mary Beth Maxwell the next Secretary of Labor.

In more than 200 years, the United States States Cabinet has never included an openly gay member. Growing national focus on GLBT civil rights has therefore made the Secretary of Labor appointment a national issue in the struggle for equal representation.

Maxwell is being closely considered for the position and she is highly qualified. She is the founding Executive Director of American Rights at Work, a national advocacy organization launched in 2003 whose mission is to modernize and reform the labor laws of our nation to better meet the needs of 21st century employers and workers. She is a longtime activist for better collective bargaining rules and a big proponent of the Employee Free Choice Act. She's a vocal progressive and would make a fantastic Secretary of Labor.

In a short amount of time, Maxwell has also earned the endorsements of the AFL-CIO, Change to Win Federation, the CEO and President of American Income Life Insurance, and the Human Rights Campaign just to name a few.

"Not only is Mary Beth Maxwell highly qualified, but she is openly gay too which is icing on the cake," says Paul Sousa, EQUAL REP founder. "With 2008 being such a historic year for shattering glass ceilings, now is the time to shatter one more for gay Americans and equal representation."

Equal Rep is urging us to take 5 minutes: leave a phone message and an email for the President-elect. Tell Obama why this is important to you. Then forward this link to your friends and ask them to do the same. We need everyone to get involved to make a collective impact.

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Forget appointing someone because they represent a certain group, how about the best person for the job, gets the job. Whether its affirmative action or other such programs which force a certain amount of minorities to be accepted to schools, get jobs, etc., it goes against logic. Mary Beth Maxwell should get the job because she is the best for it and would serve our country better than anyone else, if it fact she is the most qualified. President Elect Obama is the most liberal progressive president this country has ever seen and if he does not appoint Ms. Maxwell it will have nothing to do with her sexual orientation and everything to do with someone else was more qualified. Lets promote the best people for the position not someone because they are lesbian.

Anonymous, This appears to be a well qualified person for this appointment. The Pres-elect wants a cabinet that represents the country at large. When cabinet meetings are held, it is a great benefit to have an openly gay individual to provide a different incite. This is true of a Hispanic, African-American, White, etc.. It is important to have a seat at the table for everyone. She would give us this seat. It would be a win-win for Obama and the nation.

Yeah, I don't think we would be advocating someone solely on the basis of orientation. This woman clearly is qualified and so it would be not only a strong move, but it would go down in history and that is important.

All that I am saying is a person's religion, sex, sexual orientation or race should not play a factor at all in a political appointment. It should not even be considered. All that should be considered is who is best suited for the job. And I beg to differ with the second post, "it is important to have a seat at the table for everyone." No there are plenty of groups not represented in the Cabinet and it should stay that way because they would only push there agendas and not benefit our country. For instance, illegal immigrants do not have a seat at the table, neither do criminals. Maxwell should bring her skills when it comes to improving the labor laws, employment rates and things of that nature and keep her political and personal feelings with regards to the gay community outside.

How can you compare illegal immigrants and criminals to a U.S. tax paying, law abiding citizen. Just because she is a lesbian doesn't mean she would only focus on LGBT issues anymore than Obama will only work for blacks. She should bring her skills and also work to advance the cause of gay liberation and break the glass ceiling for us.